


Children of the Stone

by garafthel (sister_wolf)



Series: Children of the Forest, Children of the Stone [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-28 22:10:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/679416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sister_wolf/pseuds/garafthel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Nori pokes bears, plays with fire, and flirts with Dwalin. It's possible that all of those are the same thing.</p><p>This story happens simultaneously with <em>Children of the Forest</em> and may or may not make sense without reading that first. It's definitely not necessary to read this to enjoy <em>Children of the Forest</em>; this is mainly just things that Tauriel doesn't notice happening around the periphery of the main narrative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Chapter 1 of Children of the Forest.

It had started out as yet another endlessly boring evening in the Mahal-cursed Elf forest. 

With nothing else to do, Nori had been entertaining himself with his favorite game: making Dwalin twitch. (The game went as so: _move just inside Dwalin's peripheral vision--sit very still for several minutes--make a small, sudden movement--watch Dwalin's hands twitch towards Grasper and Keeper--stroll casually away, whistling._ ) 

What could he say? He enjoyed playing with fire. 

The evening suddenly became much more interesting when the princes strutted back into camp, leading an Elf as a captive. Nori had no idea how the two of them could have captured an Elf scout unless she'd actually walked right into them. Well-meaning and good-natured as the young princes were, well... let's just say that Nori hoped the next generation of Durins would have _really_ good advisors.

Nori was still in the "sit just close enough that Dwalin can't completely ignore him" portion of the game, so he stayed right where he was and watched the little drama unfold. 

Thorin was furious, of course. Nori had never quite understood the hatred the line of Durin held for all Elves. Sure, Thranduil was obviously an honorless, backstabbing dog (and Nori himself was both honorless and backstabbing, so he could say that with some certainty), but the rest of them were fine. Arrogant, holier-than-thou pricks, sure, but that was no matter. Their little trinkets were easy to palm and fetched a high price in the cities of Men. Hating them all for the actions of a few just seemed impractical.

Not that he would ever tell Thorin or any of the rest of them that, of course.

The Elf scout seemed awfully relaxed for someone who'd just been taken captive. Actually, Nori suspected that she'd let herself be caught. It was a tactic he'd used himself, a time or two, when he needed to get a closer look at someone's security from the inside. 

Dwalin, of course, recommended that they break camp and start walking immediately. Had he forgotten all the fun they'd had with the giant spiders yesterday? Fortunately that (terrible fucking) idea was immediately dismissed. Thorin sent the two princes off with the captive, because Mahal knew they'd done such a good job with guarding the ponies.

Well. Watching the princes attempt to impress an Elf girl might prove more amusing than continuing with the game of making Dwalin twitch. After all, he could do that at any time. Nori stood, tucking the tiny throwing knife he'd been playing with into his jerkin.

"Thief," a deep voice suddenly rumbled entirely too close to him. Nori did _not_ jump, dammit.

"Yes, guardsman?" Nori asked, smoothly turning with his second-best innocent-looking smile. 

Dwalin stood looming over him with his arms crossed, a position that Nori was sure the warrior was unaware emphasized the corded muscles of his forearms and the width of his granite-like shoulders. Or if he was aware, he likely thought the effect was intimidating rather than delicious.

"Keep an eye on the Elf. Make sure--" Dwalin paused and glanced over at Thorin, then continued quietly, "Make sure that the princes don't lose her."

Nori stepped a little too close for comfort and looked up at him to emphasize the height difference. Letting his voice go smokey, he said, "I live to serve, of course." 

Dwalin scowled, seemingly unsure how to respond to that. "Well... good," he said, then scowled even more thunderously and stomped back towards Thorin.

Nori strolled casually away, whistling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Chapter 1 of Children of the Forest.

It was easy enough to insinuate himself into the conversation by the campfire. Nori joined the round of introductions as if he'd always been there, amused when the Elf seemed to have trouble with all of the similar-sounding Dwarven names. Kíli was sitting so close that he was almost on top of the Elf and looked entirely smitten with her.

Nori made a mental note to make sure that he was in a position to see Thorin's face when he figured out that his sister-son was infatuated with an Elf.

His ears perked up at the bitterness in her voice when she talked about the High Elves. If there was tension between the Wood Elves and their High Elf rulers, that could prove useful at some point. That's what Thorin missed by seeing all Elves as being just like Thranduil. Groups were made of individuals, and individuals had likes and dislikes, hatreds and loves, needs and wants. And all of those were pressure points just waiting to be exploited.

Perhaps this was the sort of thing Dori was referring to when he accused Nori of being calculating and manipulative. Ah well.

And then the Elf asked Kíli to unfasten her surcoat.

A flurry of signing in Iglishmêk went on around an entirely oblivious Kíli. In the span of a few minutes, Nori established bets with Fíli, Bofur--and Bifur, surprisingly enough--regarding how long it would take for Thorin to figure out what was going on between the Elf and his sister-son. Fíli placed a side bet on how long it would take his brother to mortally offend the Elf. 

Ori did not bet, of course, and told them that they were all terrible people in a voice that sounded alarmingly like Dori at his most prim.

It turned out that the Elf was carrying lembas bread, which... ugh. Not that Nori would ever turn down food at this point, but he'd had lembas bread before, during his wandering years. The best thing that could be said about it was that it was very filling.

Interesting, though, that she'd voluntarily share her food with them. Part of an attempt to worm her way into their confidence, or a genuine act of generosity? He needed more time to observe her before he could say with any degree of certainty.

The Elf was starting to drop some useful information about the division of Thranduil's troops between High Elf nobles in heavy armor, carrying spears, and Wood Elf scouts, presumably in light leather armor like this one and armed with longbows. Then Dwalin just had to come interrupt the conversation, throwing his weight around and ordering them all to go to sleep like naughty children.

Which was not really Nori's kink, but hey, he'd try anything at least once.

He got Ori settled and went to find Dwalin on the other side of camp. The warrior was seated on the fallen tree with his warhammer resting on the ground between his feet.

"Thought you were to watch the Elf," Dwalin said.

"She's tied by the wrist to one of the princes. Even they can't manage to lose her like that." He was relatively certain of that, anyway.

Dwalin grunted. "Maybe."

"Perhaps we should have tried that with the ponies," Nori mused.

Dwalin actually almost laughed at that one. Well, he... sort of smiled a little. Or grimaced. It was hard to tell in the dim light of the campfire.

"Watch her," Dwalin said. "Elves are tricky bastards."

"My pleasure," Nori answered with a suggestive smile, bowing from the waist. Dwalin was looking a little twitchy around the eyes, so he decided to stop poking the bear and headed back towards the princes and the Elf.

And so he was in the perfect location to watch the chaos caused by an adolescent Elf with a slingshot and a grudge against Kíli.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Chapter 2 of Children of the Forest.

The little red-headed Elf boy who'd attacked the camp looked younger than Ori, for Mahal's sake. Nori found himself wondering if they were going to send Elves in swaddling clothes against them next.

Keeping half an ear on the argument with Thorin, Nori took a quick look at the weapons he'd retrieved from the Elf boy. Fine work, even if it was of Elven make. Expensive gear that had seen much less use than the Elvish bow Kíli was carrying around like a courting favor. Nori was inclined to believe the she-Elf when she claimed that the young one was just an apprentice, not an actual scout.

Nori caught Dwalin's eye and signed to him quickly that he believed the Elf's story. Dwalin nodded at him then turned to Thorin and suggested the Elves could be valuable hostages. It made Nori feel oddly warm that Dwalin had immediately trusted his judgment of the situation. That was a lot of confidence to place in a thief that he'd arrested more than a few times.

Ah, old times. Not always good times, but even then Dwalin had been his very favorite arresting officer. 

Nori shadowed the two Elves as they were led back across camp. (He supposed he'd have to start referring to them by name since now there were two of them. And "she-Elf" sounded like the sort of thing his mother would have boxed his ears for saying, Mahal rest her soul.) 

He put an immediate stop to their conversation in Elvish and insisted that they speak Westron. Nori could speak a little Elvish, but not enough to figure out if they were making plans in that language. He did know enough to understand that Cirdolas kept calling Tauriel "first." First what? First meaning oldest sibling, perhaps? They certainly looked similar enough, and the little one's outrage at Kíli "dishonoring" her certainly read as sibling-like. 

Nori still remembered having to convince Dori not to rend one of his suitors from limb to limb after the other Dwarf got a little rough with Nori. That was back when he was young enough that Dori still thought Nori needed protecting from the world, rather than the other way around.

The camp settled back down, but Nori found himself still wakeful. He positioned himself so that he could keep an eye on both Elves and took out his knotwork supplies. He wasn't quite caught up with his recording of the last several days.

He had seen Dwalin get up to start walking the perimeter, so he wasn't startled when a looming presence appeared at his elbow. Nori glanced up once to make sure it was Dwalin and not a wandering bear and then returned to his work.

"What's that you're making," Dwalin asked, somehow managing to make it sound more like a statement than a question.

"Knotwork," Nori answered without pausing in his work. If it wasn't a real question, it didn't get a real answer.

"I can see that very well, I'm not blind," Dwalin said. "But what does it say?" He actually seemed genuinely curious.

Nori spread the knotted length of silk out across his lap. It was about the width of a hand and almost two feet in length, and to anyone who didn't know the knot language, it would look like a thin scarf with oddly irregular raised bumps. "It's a record of our journey."

"How do you even read that?"

"With your fingers. Go on, touch it." Nori bit the inside of his cheek almost bloody to keep himself from grinning inappropriately. Never thought that he'd be asking Dwalin to touch something in his lap--not without immediately running for his life afterwards, anyway.

"No, I couldn't." Dwalin held up his hands. "My fingers are too rough, they'd rip it right apart."

Mmmm, big, strong, callused hands... Nori shook himself quickly out of his fantasy. "Takes more than that to destroy a knotwork scroll. This will survive when paper has long turned to dust or rotted."

"You learn that in the scribes' school, or...?"

"Something like that," Nori said.

"Right, then." Looking annoyed, Dwalin walked away.

Nori smoothed a finger over the knotwork scroll, reading a line or two without paying much attention. Knotwork scrolls would survive in conditions where paper couldn't, but even they weren't proof against dragon fire. He'd have to remember to hide the scroll someplace safe before they came to the mountain. If they all ended up burnt to ashes, he wanted history to know that they could blame it on Thorin Oakenshield's insane decision to try to take back Erebor from a bloody great dragon (instead of running in the opposite direction like a sensible person.)

Humming absently, Nori continued working.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Chapter 2 of Children of the Forest.

"Awww, they're adorable," Bofur said. "Like a basket of kittens or something."

The female Elf--Tauriel, Nori reminded himself--lay snuggling with Kíli on the ground. Kíli's arms were wound around her quite possessively. They were both sound asleep.

"Yes, and Thorin is going to have kittens if he sees them like this," Fili said, shaking his head.

"Well," Nori said, "It strikes me that we've all three of us bet it'll take longer than a day for Thorin to figure out what's happening." He sat down so that he directly blocked Thorin's line of sight to the sleeping couple. The other two looked at each other, nodded, and sat right down next to him.

"Maybe a little unsporting, but I like the way your mind works," Bofur said, tipping his cap to Nori. 

"Let's shift the odds further in our favor, shall we? Hey, Bombur," Fíli called. "Go harass Thorin about the state of the food supplies."

Then Kíli managed to mortally offend the Elf in under 24 hours and Nori pocketed the coins that Fíli owed him on that bet. 

All in all, a good morning's work.

***

The problem with having grown up with Dori was that it meant that it was really difficult to hide from him unless Nori could skip town. Not something easily manageable in a Mahal-cursed Elf forest.

"Nori! Don't you go running off, you good-for-nothing scoundrel," the dulcet tones of his older brother scolded.

Nori sighed, giving up on escaping. He stopped and turned to face his brother, letting the rest of the Company pass them on the path. "Yes, Dori? What is it this time?"

"Do you realize," Dori glanced around and lowered his voice, "that our baby brother has become friends with an _Elf_?"

"I had noticed, yeah," Nori said. "Hard not to, with the way the two of them can barely be separated."

"And what, you have no objections? Have you gone mad? That, that--that _Elf_ will fill Ori's mind with nonsense and then betray him at the worst possible moment." Dori tugged fretfully at his carefully coiled braids. "Mark my words."

"Dori, cease your panicking," Nori sighed. "The little Elf is no older than Ori and is certainly no master of manipulation."

"You cannot trust Elves," Dori said. He sounded genuinely upset, not just fretting in his usual Dori way.

"I know, I know. But brother," Nori used the word deliberately to soften Dori up, "he's finally made a friend his own age." Give or take a few hundred years, sure, but close enough. "You and I both know that he's been lonely. The princes don't really have time for the lad."

Dori wrung his hands. Nori kept an eye on them, well aware that Dori could rip an orc apart with his bare hands if he wanted. "Very well. But if this goes badly for Ori it's on your head."

"Fair enough," Nori said.

Dori glared at him warningly and then stomped away. Nori heaved a sigh and shook his head. Ah, family. Why had he followed them on this fool's journey, exactly?

He heard Ori's bright laughter at something the little Elf had said, cheerful and uncomplicated. 

Right, that was why. Bugger.

***

Nori was not exaggerating. The water that was stored in the hollow cores of the purple-stemmed ferns tasted exactly the way Bofur's feet smelled. But it was _water_.

He'd been parched so long that he could practically feel the water as it flowed into his system. Nori sat back on his heels, making a satisfied "ahhh" noise. "Well, I'm not dead or asleep, so I think this stuff is safe to drink."

Bilbo frowned at him. "Shouldn't you have tested it somehow before you drank it?"

"And how exactly should I have done that, Master Hobbit?" Nori asked. "I'm afraid I forgot my poison-testing stones in my other pants."

"Is that so? Somehow I thought your stones were in some other Dwarf's pants," Bofur said, grinning and dancing away from Nori's pretend lunge.

"Anyhow, we should maybe wait another few minutes to see if I keel over, but I'm fairly sure it's safe to drink," Nori said. Stretching out on the ground, he snipped another fern base and drank directly from it. At this point, a little dirt wasn't going to hurt him.

It was hard to drink a whole lot of liquid from the ferns, but Oin said that was just as well. Something about too much water after a long time of not enough water being dangerous. Nori figured the old healer probably knew what he was talking about. So after filling his water-skin and drinking a few more mouthfuls of disgusting-tasting water, he stretched out on the soft leaf mulch by the path and waited for the rest of the Company to finish.

"Bofur said you were the first to drink the water," Dwalin said. Nori blinked his eyes open and saw that the warrior was looming over him. Huh, he must have been more tired than he'd thought, to drift off like that with other people moving around him.

"That I did," Nori said. "Not dead yet." He held up a hand and wiggled his fingers to demonstrate.

"That was... brave of you. You couldn't have known it was safe." Dwalin frowned down at him as if he was trying to figure out something complicated.

"Yup," Nori said, popping the "p" sound. "But someone had to do it, and I certainly wasn't going to let Ori drink something I hadn't tested first."

"You're a good brother," Dwalin said, a little uncertainly.

Nori rolled to his feet, suddenly uncomfortable and angry. "What, so a thief can't care about his brothers? Is that what you thought?"

"No, I--" 

"Leave off. I have better uses for my time." Nori flicked his fingers dismissively at the warrior and stalked away to find his brothers.

Ori had somehow managed to get mud all over himself while trying to fill his water-skin. Laughing at Ori's mud-smeared face, Nori happened to glance up and catch Dwalin's eye. The warrior was watching him with that thoughtful frown again.

Scowling, Nori looked away and tried to ignore the fact that Dwalin was still staring at him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Chapter 4 of Children of the Forest.
> 
> Khuzdul used:
> 
> Nadadith - little brother

Catching Nori's elbow in a hard grip, Dori towed him away from where Ori had curled up under his cloak to sleep. Dori was still simmering with disapproval over the Elves braiding each others' hair in public. "Right in front of Ori, when I have tried so hard to keep him from being exposed to such indecency."

Nori rolled his eyes and bit back a comment that Ori would probably benefit from a little less sheltering.

Dori tugged at his braids fretfully. "Didn't I say that Elves would fill his head with their foreign notions?" He continued on in that vein for a while, but Nori had stopped listening. Something about the forest seemed different tonight. It was always evil-feeling, but the feeling in the air tonight was more like... anticipation.

He loosened his knives in their sheaths as he looked around the campsite. Across the huddled forms of sleeping Dwarves, Dwalin caught his eye and signed, _Something wrong?_

Nori signed back, _Feels like ambush._ Dwalin nodded, looking around alertly and saying something to Thorin in an undertone.

So it was that they were not taken entirely off-guard when the giant spiders attacked. 

Despite all of their differences, Nori and Dori acted as a well-oiled mechanism as they fought their way towards Ori. Dori swung his spinning chain in massive arcs, cracking carapaces and flinging spiders back. Nori slid in close, slicing massive hairy arms off at the joints and stabbing through the weak points in the spiders' carapaces.

Before they could reach him, Ori fell under a giant spider and was spun up into a white cocoon. Shouting, Dori ran towards him, too distracted by anger and fear to notice that a giant spider was sneaking up on his flank. 

Now both of Nori's brothers were down. Spewing furious obscenities, he sliced through the nearest spider's carapace and then sprinted towards Ori's cocoon. A sudden sharp pain registered in his arm almost before he realized that he had been bitten. Nori twisted and lunged for the spider that had bitten him, stabbing his daggers into the creature's eyes even as his own vision started to blur.

Awaking to total darkness, Nori deliberately kept his body relaxed as he got his bearings. He was bound tightly inside something soft and sticky. The conclusion was unavoidable: he was trapped inside a giant spider's cocoon. 

He shoved back the reflexive fear of being helpless and trapped. He wasn't trapped. He just needed to get his arms free. He still had half a dozen knives on him, though he was pretty sure that he'd lost the two he'd been wielding when he had stuck them into the spider's eyes. Once he got his arms free, he could cut his way out easily.

Except that he couldn't get the leverage to free his arms from the sticky spider silk, no matter how hard he tried. The silk allowed him some movement, but not enough to tear through the fibrous strands. Though he'd not admit this to anyone on pain of death, Nori was beginning to panic. His breathing was coming shorter and shorter and spots of black were beginning to float across his vision.

The feeling of a blade sawing at his cocoon came none too soon. Nori quelled the rising panic and stilled the shaking of his hands so that when the female Elf finished sawing his cocoon open he was able to swing himself up onto the branch, calm and cool as you please.

A bit of Ori's scarf was sticking out of a cocoon further down the branch. Nori sliced away at the spider silk with his knives until it loosened enough that he could pull his little brother out. Shaking and pale, Ori clung to him once he managed to pull him up onto the branch. 

Nori allowed himself to close his eyes as he hugged his little brother. Ori was the only thing in his life that he had never managed to ruin. He would die a thousand times before he would allow Ori to come to harm.

Nori tousled his little brother's hair. "Chin up, _nadadith_. Go over there by the trunk and wait with Dori, would you? I need to help open up the rest of the cocoons."

Sniffling, Ori gave him another quick, hard hug before obeying him and going to wait with Dori. Nori could feel his ribs compressing under Ori's surprising strength. His brothers had both inherited their strength from their mother. Nori, on the other hand, had inherited quick fingers and a certain lack of conscience from his and Ori's wastrel of a father.

His brothers safe, Nori started to work on the other cocoons. He freed a few more members of the Company before spotting something he hadn't even admitted to himself he'd been looking for. There was a cocoon further down the tree with the glint of an axe-head poking out the top of it.

Dwalin groaned as the spider silk ripped open. The big Dwarf turned his head slowly and blinked at Nori, looking confused.

"Time to wake up," Nori said cheerfully. "We've probably got a few minutes at most before the spiders come back."

"Wouldn't... miss that..." Dwalin mumbled hoarsely. He tried to hoist himself up onto the branch but couldn't seem to get his hands to grip properly. They finally managed to get him up onto the branch by dint of Nori holding onto his wrists and pulling while Dwalin shoved against a nearby branch with his legs. It worked so well, in fact, that Nori found himself sprawled on his back on the main tree-branch, which was easily as wide as he was tall, with Dwalin lying on top of him.

Nori stared up at Dwalin, who was holding himself up on his elbows and shaking his head as if to clear it. The big Dwarf smelled like musk and iron, and the way he had fallen left his soft, heavy cock and balls pressed against Nori's thigh. He resisted the urge to arch up into Dwalin, maybe get his hands on that ass and see if it was as squeezable as it looked. Now was not the time, and besides, the guardsman would probably kill him for it.

Except that the way Dwalin's blue eyes darkened and his nostrils flared as he looked down at Nori looked more like lust than anger.

"Comfortable?" Nori asked with a raised eyebrow, unable to resist teasing the guardsman.

"What? No! Let go of me."

"I'm not holding you. You're the one on top of me." Nori peered up at him in fascination. Was the big warrior _blushing_?

Dwalin growled, throwing himself off of Nori quickly enough that he barely avoided rolling all the way off the branch. Standing, he settled his axes in their holders before demanding, "Where are Thorin and Balin? We need to regroup."

Dwalin was all business then, but Nori remembered the hot look in his eyes and the flare of his nostrils as he'd breathed in Nori's scent.

If they managed to survive the giant spiders, this could be _very_ interesting. Dwalin, honorable warrior and guardsman, wanted Nori, honorless thief and charlatan, so badly he could _taste_ it.

Very interesting indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on tumblr at http://garafthel.tumblr.com.


End file.
